The vote came after city council this week passed a budget cutting five firefighting jobs, 10TV's Tanisha Mallett reported.

By agreeing to forgo raises and slash overtime, the city has $330,000 of the $390,000 it needed to keep the jobs.

Council members said there was a strong likelihood that the remaining $60,000 needed to secure the jobs would be allocated, Mallett reported.

K.J. Watts, vice president of the Ohio Association of Professional Fire Fighters, said he was optimistic that council would fill the gap by using money from a fund set up to operate the fire department's new medic.

"We have a pretty good working relationship with the city council of Lancaster and we've been working with them hand-in-hand to try to develop what we thought was a good proposal," Watts said.

Council President Kenneth Culver said that council would not take up the issue until its next meeting scheduled for Feb. 9.

Still, firefighters said the union's ability to come together in order to try and save jobs was what the profession is all about.

"It was the perfect example of what the brotherhood is all about in the fire service and in this department in particular," said Lancaster firefighter Michael Thian. "It was great for those guys to do something like that."

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